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Travelogue: A Runner’s Perspective of Hong Kong

Ask anyone about Hong Kong and they’ll rattle off the usual suspects: Night life, Star Ferry, Victoria Peak, busy markets of Mong Kok, Macau, the Malls, Dim Sum, etc. If you travel with kids you’ll also end up hearing about the Disneyland, Ocean Park, the Heritage Museum and so on. I love Hong Kong and I’ve been there multiple times, but this was the first time I was looking at it from a running standpoint. I was visiting with my family for just a couple of days and we were hanging out at Fanling, deep in the New Territory close to the Mainland border. Just looking at the neighborhood on Google Maps alone was making me drool at all the hills that were out there. How did I not see them before?

Trail Running In Hong Kong

iRunFar has a great article on trail running in Hong Kong and I personally want to run the Lantau 50K someday. And I wished I had done a little more homework on the trails before arriving there. But from our apartment on the 17th floor, you can see the beautiful green hills (picture below) of Pat Sin Leng county park. I only had a couple of hours. So I grabbed a bottle of water and a couple of Clif Shots and set out exploring, somewhat aimlessly.

Ran along the Sha Tau Kok Road, made a few wrong turns, got lost and eventually ended up on Lau Shui Heung Road that intersects with Hok Tau Road leading to the park entrance. Once you approach the park, you quickly leave behind the hustle and bustle of the city. Nobody around, no cars and fantastically lush green forests that seem to go on forever. In hindsight, I should’ve cabbed to the entrance, ‘cos I really wanted to summit the hill. The Wilson Trail takes you up to 639 meters (2,000 feet) and I couldn’t lay my eyes off what Google Earth was showing me. I suppose this would have to be for next time.

View From 17th Floor

Approaching Pat Sin Leng

Lau Shui Heung

Pat Sin Leng County Park

Hok Tau County Trail

On Hok Tau County Trail

Fanling From The Summit

Hills of Pat Sin Leng

Single Track On Hok Tau Trail

Farms Along The Foothills

Instead settled for the shorter Hok Tau County Trail that took me up on cobble stone steps and single tracks to the summit, dropped me to the other side where I ran back through farm lands breathing in the fresh air. I was reluctant to head back, but I was short on time and backtracked the 4 miles back. The weather stayed in the high 50’s to low 60’s and turned out to be the perfect day for a run. Check out my route on Strava.